I’m pleased to introduce Beth Collea, Religious Education Coordinator for New England Yearly Meeting and a member of Wellesley Meeting in Massachusetts, who is the guest author for this month’s Book Musings. For a number of years, Beth has served on a dedicated working group, which has re-imagined FGC’s classic Sparklers curriculum to produce Sparkling Still, a completely updated version of this First Day school classic. One of the features of the new Sparkling Still is that it demonstrates how to create lesson plans for ages 3–8 based on children’s story books and how to use the conversations that arise from these stories to build community and help children explore and grow. I asked Beth to share some of her thoughts about children’s literature that arise from her work on this project. 
Children receive lots of education about bullying in school but very few chances to practice responding as a bystander—the most powerful person in a bullying dynamic. In Say Something by Peggy Moss, we see a girl learn firsthand how much it can help if a peer interrupts the intimidation with even a simple greeting, or better yet clear feedback that name calling and threats are not acceptable. Say Something is a wonderful jumping off point for role playing.
Chicken Sunday by Patricia Polocco gives us another lens through which to look at speaking our truth. The children go to the hat shop in their small town to inquire about ways they could earn money to buy a special Easter hat for Miss Eula. Older children rush by and throw eggs at the store. The proprietor is Jewish, and this scenario is familiar to him. The children are wrongfully accused of vandalism and are guided to correct the misunderstanding by Miss Eula. We see the warmth and possibility that spring from a mended relationship. One child’s mother helps them make elaborate Pysanky Easter eggs, and the store owner lets them earn money for the Easter hat by selling the eggs in his store.
Wangari’s Trees of Peace: A True Story from Africa by Jeannette Winter moves from the private to the public arena by exploring witness and action in the world. We meet Wangari as she grows up in Kenya and then returns from studies in the United States. She is shocked to see how many trees have been felled to make way for new construction. She begins to plant trees in her backyard and encourages other women to do the same. Men ridicule her and even put her in jail. In the end, her Green Belt movement plants over 30 million trees!
Finally, we could return to the deeply personal with A Terrible Thing Happened by Margaret M. Holmes. This book takes us into the feelings a child might have after witnessing something very upsetting or traumatic. We are never told what the terrible thing is but learn that troubling memories, sleep difficulties, lack of appetite, and stomach aches can be ways our bodies signal that something is the matter. The story reaches resolution as Sherman, the main character, is able to share his feelings with a trusted adult.
The four stories suggested above work best for ages 5-8, but we list many more helpful titles, including some for younger children, in Sparkling Still. I recommend giving parents advance notice of plans to open a conversation about hard topics in class. A word to the ministry and counsel committee or another group charged with pastoral care is wise, as well.
To acknowledge the role of First Day school in pastoral care among our youngest Friends only names what is already true. Teaching First Day school is a ministry and as such requires us to address the very real and often very tender situations in our children’s lives.
In faith and joy,
Beth Collea
| Pre-Order Sparkling Still at a Discount
 Sparkling Still is a guide and support for First Day school teachers, written with the goal of making lesson planning easy for the inexperienced as well as the seasoned teacher. It folds in basic elements of teacher training and streamlines the whole lesson-planning process. Extensive booklists help make curriculum planning fun. A step-by-step Master Lesson Plan, blank lesson templates, and seven sample lessons give teachers a jump start. Units include the Bible and Quakerism, Testimonies, Worship, Sense of Self, and more.Pre-order at $11 from QuakerBooks of FGC. (Print version will be $12.50; a pdf download will also be offered for $7.) |
A book that’s getting a lot of attention—we’ve already had to re-order it—is NurtureShock. It reconsiders the theories behind our society’s strategies for nurturing children. What have we gotten wrong about the ways we grow, learn, and live? I haven’t read this book yet—as a father, I’m a little worried about what I may find ou
Drones are a scary weapon unique to our times. Killing people as easily as if they are in a computer game seems so wrong—and the fact that many of those killed are not even combatants is even more morally repugnant. British publisher Verso is one of the first to publish an affordable examination of drones and their implications. Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control offers a thorough look at robot warfare and its implications.
Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years is an ambitious study of Christianity, beginning with the origin of the Hebrew scriptures and following the the stories of the three major strands of the Christian faith throughout the world. Author Dairmaid MacCulloch has created a “definitional” work that we recommend for meeting libraries as well as weight lifters in training.
We are now adding to our stock a number of books recommended by the authors of FGC’s about-to-be-published Sparkling Still First Day school curriculum for ages 3–8. I created a new section on our website for these titles, with more to be added soon. A few of these books really stood out for me: Peace by Wendy Halperin is based on the Tao de Ching; Infinity and Me contemplates mysteries; and The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind tells the inspiring story of how a young Tanzanian boy built his own windmill.
Finally, to round off these jottings, from now on I will conclude by mentioning an older book that seems to have been overlooked of late, but which I particularly recommend. Notes from an Exhibition is a British novel about a Quaker family. The mother, an eccentric, difficult, bipolar artist, has died. In preparing a posthumous exhibition of her work, the father and adult children revisit her impact on their lives, piece together her story, and uncover her secrets―another of those great deals at just $5.Cheerio, Graham ]]>
For example, Valerie Brown’s new book is about pilgrimage from the perspective of a Quaker teacher of Buddhist practice. Interwoven with reflections on her own pilgrimages to such places as India, Japan, Iona, and on El Camino de Santiago, she discusses the meaning of pilgrimage itself. What is spiritual travel? How can we reach new depths by removing ourselves from home, entering sacred spaces, and placing ourselves among strangers? The Road That Teaches: Lessons in Transformation through Travel contains Brown’s reflections on what she has learned in her own pilgrimages and offers counsel to readers about the practice of spiritual travel.
Robert Lawrence Smith’s Quaker Book of Wisdom: Life Lessons in Simplicity, Service, and Common Sense introduces a Quaker perspective on life. I owe atonement to this book. When it first appeared in 1998, I wrote a critical review of it, complaining that as an introductory book on Quakerism, it was too singular in its interpretations and that the author lacked perspective on the larger Quaker movement. I have changed my mind about this book since I came to appreciate it as a memoir. I now believe this one Friend’s personal reflections on growing up Quaker in a largely Quaker community to be the best kind of expression of the spirit of Quakerism. When I was teaching at a Friends school, I began to recommend this book to nonQuaker parents who wanted a better understanding of the people who were educating their children. In ten simply written narrative chapters about how such subjects as Truth, Simplicity, Conscience, and Service have played a role in the author’s life, we learn to know both a person and the community that shaped that person. We've marked this book down 15% through the end of April.
Two other memoirs I have enjoyed are about the process of leaving one’s religion behind in young adulthood. Karen Armstrong, once a novice nun, and Heidi Hart, once a Mormon, tell very different stories of coming to recognition that the culture of their faith is a poor fit for who they are called to become, and that a different kind of truth deep within is clamoring to have voice. Armstrong, author of The Spiral Staircase: My Climb out of Darkness, has become a well known scholar of religion. Hart, author of Grace Notes: The Waking of a Woman’s Voice, tells a lyrical story of finding her way to Quakerism as a musician and writer.
Some memoirs offer a new insight for interpreting your own life choices. When Glen Retief leaves his childhood home on a South African game preserve for boarding school, he is confronted with brutality from the older prefects, who often discipline younger students by imposing “jacks,” or hard wallops on the backside with a cricket bat. The cruelest of the prefects introduces the concept of a “jack bank”―by volunteering to bank jacks in advance, boys can earn interest against any future penalties. Four voluntary jacks today can buy you out of six if you are caught in an infraction next week. Who would submit to such a thing? Most of the students would, including young Glen, who fears the jacks, but fears greater retaliation, humiliation, and “not fitting in” even more. The Jack Bank becomes a metaphor for self-punishing life choices the author makes as he tries to find a way to accept his gay identity and fit in to South African culture at a time of tumultuous change in politics and race relationships.
Perhaps the most likeable memoir to enter the stream of Quaker literature in the past year is Lynn Waddington’s Staying True: Musings of an Odd-Duck Quaker Lesbian Approaching Death. I read this book in manuscript and would have liked for us to have published it, but the Waddington estate chose a different path. QuakerBooks hosted a reading from Staying True at last year’s FGC Gathering, and the room was packed beyond capacity. This book is an anomaly in being one of the very few general “story of my life” kinds of memoir that actually works very well. Why is it good? While the writing is lively and the circumstances command attention, there is not one feature that makes Staying True stand out. Rather, it makes good reading because it is written by an interesting person, someone who expresses interesting thoughts about her life, who makes unexpected choices, and with whom you would like to be having a conversation.
Whose story would you like to read?
Peace to you,
Chel
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Parker Palmer’s A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life is one such book. Last month I wrote of Thomas Kelly’s vision of living from the Center, rather than as a “committee of multiple selves.” Palmer addresses a specific way such inner division happens, through the different callings of “soul” and “role.” How often do your roles in the world call for an inner separation between your values and actions? (For example, a role may require you to encourage a client to use your company’s product when you privately believe she may actually be happier with a competitor’s.) Palmer addresses the wounds caused by these inner divisions and offers ideas for healing, while continuing to live in a world that places such demands on us. his book has encouraged me to seek wholeness, in my own clumsy way, despite “real world” demands.
Living Our Testimony on Equality: A White Friend’s Experience by Pat Schenck is, for me, one of the most effective calls to change that I have read, precisely because it is written from the assumption that the reader’s opinions do not need to be changed and the reader does not need to be educated. This author starts with the presumption that the white Quaker who has picked up this publication already wishes to live a life and be part of a meeting that is more racially fair and inclusive. Rather than raising defensiveness by treating the reader as someone who needs to be instructed with more information about the problems, information that will somehow change her in areas where she is deficient, the pamphlet goes fairly directly to the questions of “What gets in our way?” “Given our good intentions, why do we stumble?” then gently, encouragingly, and simply, offers a way forward
A book that had a subtle but long-lasting effect on me is The Woman Said Yes: Encounters with Life and Death, by the well-known Quaker novelist Jessamyn West. I read this book more than twenty years ago and continue to think about it. It is a personal memoir of two episodes in the writer’s life: a time when she was seriously ill and her mother fought to save her life; then a period much later when West helped her terminally ill younger sister to die as she wished. I don’t know whether this book would have had the same impact if I’d read it at another period in my life, such as after I’d worked as a hospice volunteer, but its effect was profound and lasting. It was this book that first made me understand that there are times when the sanctity of life is best honored by trying to preserve it and times when it is best honored by letting life go. I lost much of my fear of and resistance to death after reading this book, and that has made living a different kind of experience.
The Power of a Positive No: How to Say No and Still Get to Yes by William Ury is part of an informal series of books from the authors of the 1981 classic, Getting to Yes. I was working as my yearly meeting’s “conflict response specialist,” training mediators and working with meetings in conflict, when I started reading these books, and I’ve never found anything better. I mention this title because it is the one we currently have in stock, but they are all incredibly helpful. Like many Friends, I am pretty comfortable with other people’s conflicts, but have never completely gotten over my aversion to openly addressing my own disputes with others. There is always some easy excuse to justify conflict avoidance—this person is too fragile or too unreasonable or the consequences would be too high. The approaches, techniques, and examples in this series have helped me to overcome those excuses when I’ve needed to so I could deal with what needs to be dealt with.
Finally, can I close a discussion on “books that have changed me” without mentioning The Journal of John Woolman? I’m afraid I’ve become a stuck record on that particular title, so I’ll mention a similar wonderful book written by his contemporary, David Ferris. Resistance and Obedience to God is another, shorter memoir by a Quaker doing his best to live faithfully within the moral and ethical dilemmas of the eighteenth century. It includes his loving efforts to persuade his friends to release their slaves. He sets a model that I strive to live up to.
Has a book ever changed you? Which books have helped you to be different?Chel ]]>
About a year ago, I read Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. One of the gifts of this book was the term “restorative niche.” The author makes the point that (depending on the study and definition used) one-third to one-half of us are introverts, but we live in a culture geared toward the values of extroversion. That means that a great many people are stretching themselves to fit into a world that is more interactive and requires more responsiveness than is comfortable for them. How do they manage? One technique many use is to seek out the “restorative niche,” the getaway where you can recover from the hubbub. A restorative niche may be elaborate – such as a secluded country home to which guests are rarely invited – or quick and simple – a trip to the bathroom that you don’t really need. There are probably as many kinds as there are people.
I have been noticing that the idea of “restorative niche” goes beyond time and space. It can also be a habit of mind. In his wonderful essay, “The Simplification of Life” (from the Quaker classic, A Testament of Devotion),Thomas Kelly writes about all the competing loyalties and responsibilities demanding our attention and how they can be called into unity. “Each of us,” he writes, “tends to be, not a single self, but a whole committee of selves” each clamoring for its own priority, rather than living from a single Center. “Life from the Center,” he concludes, “is a life of unhurried peace and power. It is simple. It is serene. . . . It takes no time, but it occupies all our time.”
Another kind of onslaught is electronic connectivity. Back in the early 1980s, I asked a manager at my workplace when we could get a fax machine. He said we were getting one soon, but he also said, “Don’t think for a minute that having a fax will make your life easier. It will be more difficult – people who used to think it reasonable to wait at least two days for a response from you will start expecting you to get back to them in a couple hours.”
I had no idea how prophetic that counsel would turn out to be! Today I really wrestle with how much connectivity I can manage. I set arbitrary limits. The few people who have my cell phone number know I rarely check messages; I look at Facebook once a day until I see something I’ve seen before or until my morning coffee cup is empty, and that’s it for 24 hours; I have a rule about not checking my email before 11 a.m. because once I do, I will probably lose control of my workday.
In his delightful book, Hamlet’s Blackberry, William Powers considers the role of “screens” in our lives. What are the benefits, and what are the problems of being constantly within reach by cell phone, email, etc? There are real advantages, but there are also costs we haven’t yet learned to limit. He sees us in a moment of cultural transition where we are still learning to manage the many new ways we are “connected,” and so he looks for wisdom in the words of philosophers who wrote at times when other such major transitions occurred. What can we learn from Plato’s thoughts about writing, Thoreau’s about the telegraph, McLuhan’s about mass media? I found this book fascinating.
On another front altogether, let me recommend The Little Quaker Book of De-Clutter. This very practical handbook is composed of short sections with level-headed advice about how to fight back against the overwhelming accumulation of stuff we don’t need, stuff we won’t really ever get around to using, and stuff that catches dust. The author suggests that sometimes the simplicity testimony backfires on Friends—in the effort not to waste anything, we allow our desks, drawers, closets, and cabinets to fill with detritus. The home, she argues, should be a peaceful refuge that nurtures our vitality, not a place that weighs us down with its fullness. She offers this booklet as a guide to “clearing our houses so we can clear our lives and be available to God’s leadings.&rdquo
May you find refuge
Chel
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Quakers have sometimes been called to examine and even relearn our stories, such as our frequently told tales of Quaker work on the underground railroad and Quaker support of abolition. It is not that these stories are false, but that in telling them as our history, and in leaving out other parts of our past, we create an image of ourselves that is incomplete and blinds us to the larger picture. When this happens, we need such books as Fit for Freedom, Not for Friendship to fill in the forgotten parts of our record.
Stories can be powerful. Stories can be dangerous. Stories can be inspirational. Stories are shared identity. And always, stories are absolutely necessary.
One of my favorite kinds of fiction is the retelling of a familiar story in a way that invites readers to understand it differently. One such story continues to haunt me. I’ve written before about Not the End of the World, which tells the voyage of Noah’s family on the ark from the perspective of Noah’s young daughter. This is a troubling but ultimately satisfying interpretation of a well known tale. Although the book is written for young adults, I recommend it for older readers. The good news is that the price is greatly reduced ($2). The bad news is that we have only five remaining copies and are unlikely to be able to get more.
Some writers use stories quite deliberately as tools to help readers imagine possibilities. A recent collection from Earlham grad Mark Andreas assembles real people’s stories about creative ways they found to navigate conflict in a wide variety of situations, ranging from street crime to jailbreaks to human resources issues in organizations. Sweet Fruit from the Bitter Tree is fun to read, trying to imagine how each narrator will turn around what initially appears to be an impossible situation.
A similar book for children is our own classic Lighting Candles in the Dark. It contains sections of stories on courage and nonviolence, on the power of love, on service, on fairness and equality, and on care for the earth. This book is currently out of print in paper but you can dowload a digital version for your ereader, computer, or other device.
Another book for children assembles stories that together present the story of Quakers as a people. Journeys in the Light contains both fictional stories typical of Friends and dramatizations of real events involving Quakers over the centuries and from around the world expressing peace, simplicity, truth, and equality in their lives.
Finally, a great book especially for girls is Not One Damsel in Distress which assembles folktales from around the world showring girls as strong, active heroes in charge of their own destinies. Stories come from Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
May this story and the next one end happily ever after.
Chel
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Sometimes to be hopeful in today’s world feels like an obligation I just can’t fulfill. And it’s when my expectations about the future are the most dire, I’ve found, that it is time to give thanks for the present.
In recent years, I’ve been called to the responsibility of being what I call a principled pessimist. At first, this was just a survival strategy. I was raised by a delightful woman who saw the world through rose colored glasses and who had perfected the practice of denial to an art form. I learned at her knees, and in many ways I’ve been blessed by a fundamental inclination mostly to see only the best in everyone and everything. That’s what comes naturally.
But I have also learned from experience that I am susceptibly gullible. Any halfway convincing person speaking confidently can make me believe that this particular path will take us to the garden, or that brand of snake oil will perfectly fit the bill. So I have taught myself to step back and keep my responsive enthusiasm in check—I have learned skepticism as a discipline to balance what a friend has called my “Mary Poppins side.&rdquo
In more recent years, though, I’ve come to think of that skepticism as a social responsibility. I have observed worthy human endeavors slide into chaos when only “positive thinking” is encouraged. Doubt and criticism are silenced to the extent that optimism becomes self reinforcing. A high concentration of very upbeat attitudes spirals into a “can’t lose” mentality, until overly confident actions wind up in disaster. From what I’ve read, this mirrors at least some of what happened leading up to the Wall Street debacle of 2008.
I figure each group needs at least one “designated pessimist.” One of the queries I often bring into worship is whether I am called to that role at a particular time and place. I have often been told, both directly and implicitly, that it is a moral obligation to be an optimist, that it is an insult to God and an injury to society not to be hopeful. 
But I am increasingly comfortable with the understanding that it may be my social obligation to be a pessimist about the future. Over time, I am getting better at it. Maybe I am a better pessimist because of practice, or maybe it’s because my rational mind is telling me that there are more and more reasons for a gloomy outlook in today’s world.
I’ve wondered why is it that Friends don’t give more attention to the spiritual life of the unhopeful person. I see articles and hear ministry on why and how one should be hopeful, but not about how to walk the posthopeful path with integrity and in unity with the Spirit.
So here is something I’ve learned from my own experience. When I’m in a frame of mind that the world is going to hell in a handbasket—ecologically, economically, politically, and with respect to popular culture—then it is absolutely necessary to say thank you.
Expectation is for the future, but gratitude is for the present, as well as for what has been. In giving thanks, I return to the miracle of the moment at hand. I notice that even though I sorrow, the sky is still blue and astonishing, jokes are still funny, the people I love and admire are still just as lovable and admirable, and the creation and all of us within it are still “fearfully and wonderfully made.&rdquo
I notice that even in complete acceptance of impending doom, I am motivated to recycle, to use public transportation, to donate to causes I believe in, and to write my representative at appropriate times. Caring for the world and the beings living in it is still a way to honor belatedly the gifts we have received and mostly squandered.
Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer, by David Steindl-Rast, is the book that first inspired me to undertake gratitude as an intentional practice. The author, a Catholic monk, writes “What counts is prayerfulness, not prayers. And the fullness of prayer is grateful living.” When this book came into my life, about fifteen years ago, I fell into a very simple practice. At least a dozen times a day I stop to note what’s here, right now, and to give thanks for it (even if it’s something I wish would go away). Nine times out of ten, just stopping to recognize the gifts that are present, and to be grateful, realigns my perspective into gladness.
One of the topics Steindle-Rast discusses is surprise—the importance of being ready to be surprised by what the world contains. Two kinds of reading kindle my grateful surprise in the world: science and poetry. They affect me in similar ways. Someday I would like to be in a book club that reads science and natural history for spiritual nurture. But it seems that poetry is more easily shared, and it, too, has a similar capacity to awaken delight in the mysteries and powers we live with. A couple poets I love:
Mary Rose O’Reilly, whose Half Wild has been described as “a spiritual biography wound backward, spiraling into the world rather than out of it"
And Mary Oliver, a favorite among Quakers. Her collection of New and Selected Poems comes in two volumes. She writes
That's the big question, the one the world throws at you every morning. "Here you are, alive. Would you like to make a comment?”
My colleague, Brent Bill, has co-authored another book that stimulates appreciation: Awaken Your Senses: Exercises for Exploring the Wonder of God. Brent and Beth Booram believe that the delight we encounter through our senses—through the joys of sight, sound, scent, texture, and taste—teach us about the Divine and help us to know God. The theme of gratitude is woven into the fabric of a book that is both inspirational and instructive.
Finally, the book that started me pondering this theme is a story not specifically of gratitude but of its flip side, generosity. I believe that gratitude inspires us to be generous, just as generosity in others inspires our gratitude. One City, Two Brothers is a beautifully illustrated children’s story, traditionally told both as a Jewish fable and as an Arab folk tale, about acts of kindness that blessed the site of what came to be the city of Jerusalem.
May you have much to be grateful for,Chel
Nonbook pictures in order: Cats Eye Nebula (Hubble), Galactic Wreckage in Stephan's Quintet (Hubble), Dust at 22millionX magnification, Crab Nebula (Hubble). ]]>
This issue of Book Musings is dedicated to John Woolman, who sets a standard for personal honesty that inspires me every time I reread his Journal, which is often. I was surprised recently by the comment of a young man who sees Woolman as weak, because he keeps second guessing himself, checking his motives and the source of his words, waiting for certainty before speaking. I see Woolman as a courageous example of rigorous personal standards for inward as well as outward honesty. In my spiritual support group at my meeting, this is one of the things we ask of each other: “help me to test myself with the questions that John Woolman would have asked before speaking or acting.”
But there is only one John Woolman, so in honor of this election day, here are some very fine books about people who lied
At a time when his peers were taking semesters abroad, Brown student Kevin Rose also pursued the experience of a different culture—one much closer to home, at least geographically. The son of liberal Quaker parents goes “underground” to spend a semester at Liberty University, the evangelical Christian college founded by Jerry Falwell. Unlikely Disciple is a well written book, much of which explores the issues that emerge as Rose develops relationships with people he is deceiving about his beliefs and about his reasons for living among them. What happens when you begin to care about people you are fooling? The book draws an intriguing portrait of evangelical culture, but woven into it are the questions of relationship and of integrity that emerge for Rose as a participant/observer anthropologist in disguise.
Notes from an Exhibition is an engrossing work of fiction, first brought to my attention by Graham Garner of the QuakerBooks staff. A deeply disturbed but talented artist has died. She leaves behind some extraordinary paintings that no one has seen and much mystery about who she really was. As her four adult children and her Quaker husband reconstruct their memories (in which Quakers play a part) disturbing secrets are uncovered and an identity revealed. Patrick Gale writes beautifully!
During his lifetime, Levi Coffin assisted more than three thousand fugitives escaping from slavery. The Reminiscences of Levi Coffin emphasize the stories of the escapees themselves. During the period of the Underground Railroad, when secrecy could mean life or death, many Quakers were troubled by the contradiction between the virtues of truthfulness and mercy. These are stories where the choice for mercy was made. Recommended by my colleague, Elaine Craudereuff.
Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed ----This is the record of a deception by a whole community. During World War II, Le Chambon, a French village, conspired to hide Jewish children in full view of the Vichy government and Gestapo representatives. This book is an account of how it happened—the personalities, the events, and the ethical issues involved, such as teaching children to lie.
Two of these books -- Unlikely Disciple and Notes from an Exhibition -- are remaindered and are on sale for $5 each. Our bookstore has new hours: 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, but you can order online anytime at www.quakerbooks.org or call us at 800-966-4556.
I wish you satisfaction from the outcome of today's elections.
Peace to you!
Chel
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If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging symbol.
Oxford Study Bible (1 Cor. 13:1)
I have two degrees in communications and have studied three languages, but this verse is the most important thing I know about communication. When I read it, I sometimes wonder why I went to graduate school, where it was definitely not part of the curriculum.
Whatever your eye falls on—for it will fall on what you love—will lead you to the questions of your life, the questions that are incumbent upon you to answer, because that is how the mind works in concert with the eye. The things of this world draw us where we need to go.
The Barn at the End of the World: The Apprenticeship of a Quaker Buddhist Shepherd (p. 95), by Mary Rose O’Reilley
O’Reilley is both a poet and a philosopher. She writes the most amazing things!
This love of people is well-nigh as amazing as the love of God. Do we want to help people because we feel sorry for them, or because we genuinely love them? The world needs something deeper than pity; it needs love.
A Testament of Devotion (p. 123) by Thomas R. KellyHas any Quaker ever written a more underlinable book than this one?
you do not need words
to be
music
From Parsonage to Prison: Collected Poems (p. 14) by Janeal Turnbull Ravndal
Such human, compassionate, sometimes gritty, sometimes hilarious poems!
I’ve come to believe that the willingness to be baffled and stay baffled is part of my identity and one of my birthright gifts. I mean “gift” seriously: bafflement has energized my life, . . . Writers are sometimes regarded as experts on the subjects they write about. But I’ve never written on a topic that I’ve mastered or figured out. Once I arrive at what some might call expertise, I get bored, and writing is hard enough without working on something I find boring. I write about things that baffle me even after I’ve written about them, which is to say that I write about things whose mystery seems bottomless to me.
The Promise of Paradox: A Celebration of Contradiction in the Christian Life (p. xxxiii) by Parker J. Palmer
So many of us have benefited richly from Parker Palmer’s perplexity!
Awaken Your Senses: Exercises for Exploring the Wonder of God (p. 172) by J. Brent Bill and Beth A. Booram
This passage was suggested to me by Joe Paluck, our intern from Drexel University. Read Joe’s interview with J. Brent Bill, co-author of the book.
If you attend the FGC Gathering in Kingston Rhode Island during the first week of July, please come see us at the Gathering Store, or drop into various author and book club events we will be hosting throughout the week.
Peace to you,
Chel
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by Joe Paluck
We received J. Brent Bill’s newest publication, Awaken Your Senses, at QuakerBooks a few months ago and were impressed by the engaging yet simple sensory-oriented exercises within. As the book goes into a second printing to meet continuing reader demand, we jumped at the chance to interview Brent about the process behind creating this spiritual guide with co-author Beth Booram and about his own personal methods for keeping in touch with the Divine.
Brent, a recorded minister in the Religious Society of Friends, lives in Mooresville, Indiana, where he is the executive vice president of the Indianapolis Center for Congregations in Indiana. He has been a local church pastor in Indiana and Ohio, as well as an adjunct professor at Earlham School of Religion in Indiana. He has written numerous books, short stories, and magazine articles. You can check out some of our other favorite publications by J. Brent Bill here: Sacred Compass, A Modest Proposal, and Holy Silence.
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JBB: I met Beth about three years ago. Her husband Dave and I were Facebook friends before Beth and I met. We happened to connect at an event and started chatting. She wanted to interview me about spiritual practices because I had written some about Quakerism and Quaker disciplines for a book for a project she was working on. We began just chatting about our mutual interest in art and faith. She’s a musician and I’m a photographer so we started chatting about fine arts, musical art, photography, literature, and found we had a lot in common. We got to talking about how our senses often get left behind when it comes to faith. Especially how folks in Protestant denominations really seem to be almost distrustful, at times, of our bodies whereas orthodox and Catholics tend to at least recognize that sensory experiences are an important part of faith; using the liturgy, or the Holy Smoke as I call it. So we thought it would be fun to do something with that, so we put together a workshop called “The Art of Faith.” Since, to us, faith wasn’t a science, it was an art. There’s no formula to follow to make it perfect. So we wanted to invite people to evolve their senses in a daylong event, trying to experience god. So that’s sort of how we got started.
JP: So when this gestated it started as a workshop kind of thing. Now, whose idea was it to start the 30 day experiments where you would blog for a month about a particular sense? I read that this was a technique you used during the writing process.
JBB: Since the idea went well I would really like to claim it, but no, that was Beth’s [laughs]
JBB: Yeah, um, we both blogged and I blogged about some sensory-type things. We eventually decided to keep our journals on our separate blogs and invite our readers to participate by sending in their experiences as well. It was real interesting to see which of our writings the folks responded to, and then other folks began to blog about it as well who weren’t necessarily connected to the project or anything.
JP: In this book I noticed you start a lot of chapters with very personal situations. This was a very effective approach. I found it easy to place myself in your shoes from chapter to chapter.
So, for how long have you been leading retreats and serving as a minister?
JBB: Well I’ve been leading retreats for a long time and a lot of my writing is more personal in nature, I think. It’s not quite memoir but it’s a little more than an essay and just talking about ideas and so forth. You know, I find that the people that I like to read are those who don’t necessarily take the standpoint of an expert but that of a traveler along the pilgrim path and so that’s how I try to write. I try to write as somebody who’s saying “This is my experience; I’d like to hear about yours.” But in a book it’s hard to do that, so let’s talk informally and conversationally and then if I need experts to speak deep truths I use folks like Thomas Kelly or Rufus Jones or other folks who are deep spiritual guides and introduce the reader to them.
JP: Interesting. So you and Beth use a lot of Bible quotes in your book. Sometimes you’ll start an entry or a chapter with a particularly poignant quote, or a quote that reflects your message. How important is the Bible to you? Do you feel that the Bible reinforces your message or justifies your point of view?
JBB: Yeah, I’m not sure that I’d put it “Justify our point of view” or “my point of view” in the book. You see, I take the Bible seriously as a document of faith; it’s influenced particularly Christianity, the New Testament at any rate, and Jewish life for thousands of years. So, as a person of faith, it behooves me to pay attention to what’s said, and as I look through it and read it, I see lots of references that I’ve never heard discussed in worship or Sunday school or whatever, about our bodies and all the different senses that we get to experience, what we see what we taste and so forth. If you look at the Old Testament, for example, and you think about all the offerings that were made—for example, to make “a sweet smelling sacrifice to the Lord.”
We don’t often think about even God’s sensory responses, and I’m sure we can argue that that’s metaphoric, but still it’s evolving, and you think about the whole incarnation of Jesus Christ and, those of us who are Christian, you know here was God come in bodily form walking around and experiencing the same things as we do. Not just pure spirit. It’s almost like Christian faith today has sort of a Gnostic approach you know: “The spirit is good and the body is bad.” Scripture doesn’t portray it that way, though. Certainly, misuse of the body, it certainly covers that. Giving in to every desire, whether it is sexual or gluttony is a misuse. I mean I love a good glass of wine and good food but that doesn’t meant I overindulge everything. We’re given these bodies as carriers not just for our spirit, but as a ways to make our way through the world and experience the goodness that God’s given us. And that’s completely consistent, I think, with the Bible.
JP: Now, you said you were a photographer. Which parts of the sensory experience do you feel, for you, is most closely tied to your individual spirituality. Is it sight? Capturing beauty in the world?
JBB: I would think that sight is probably one of the strongest of mine. Belden Lane, who’s a theologian, says that we need to pay attention in love. And for me sight is really important for doing that. I try to tell stories through photographs, beauty in the world, whether it’s nature or what have you. The latest series that I’ve been working on is old barns. I’ve been taking photos out in a lot of rural places like farm dumps. There’s this beautiful reclamation of the earth by nature. Like the foliage growing in and around the old farm buildings and equipment, and you know, it’s like God is not going to let ugliness exist. God is always going to work for beauty at a level that perhaps we don’t really pay attention to or expect. I do a thing called “Praying with my Camera.” It’s a way to help me focus and to slow down and be still. Somebody asked me the other day if I’m a Quaker because I’m naturally drawn to silence and quiet contemplation. I told them, no, I’m a Quaker because I’m not naturally drawn to those things and I need to be. Photography is another tool that helps me slow down, be contemplative, and to try to see what the story is going on around me and then to frame it and capture it in a way that shows, hopefully, some beauty.
JP: That’s interesting. You kind of lead into my next question. There are a lot of exercises in this book for relaxation, meditation, oneness, and just overall appreciation for the world. When life gets hectic, to which exercises do you find yourself clinging?
JBB: Photography is certainly one. I always have two things with me in my car: my laptop [chuckles] to stay connected with work at times, but my briefcase is a combination camera bag and laptop carrier so I have a camera and at least one extra lens in there so if I see something interesting in my travels I’ll stop. There were some interesting sheep out the other day walking through the early morning fog and mist and I pulled to the side of the road and spent some time thanking God for the beauty of that moment by trying to capture it (so I can remember it).
Walking in the woods is another big one for me, even without a camera. I’m fortunate enough to live on fifty acres of land that’s mostly comprised of woods and tall grass prairie that we planted. So to just get out and feel the ground under my feet, literally, instead of under my tires which I do most of the time while driving, but to actually walk contemplatively and to feel the pebbles through the soles of my shoes or to focus on what it feels like to step barefoot on the sand. Walking is very important to me.
JP: I’m glad you said that. You know, I grew up in rural Pennsylvania. The mountains were home for me. Nature has always been very important to me: nature trails, mountain biking, etc. To this day it still brings me peace to be among the trees in the forest. . .
I was raised Roman Catholic but I have since been become interested in Quakerism. My question for you is, have you been a Quaker since you were young or was this something you fell into later in life? How did Quakerism affect your journey?
JBB: I did grow up a Quaker in the Evangelical tradition. As a matter of fact in the extreme Evangelical tradition in Ohio that was more about emphasis on personal holiness and relationship with Jesus. . . not quite as much emphasis on, say, the peace testimony or any of the other classic testimonies. When I went to college I went to a Quaker college [Wilmington College of Ohio] where I had a terrific mentor named T. Canby Jones, who was a religion professor, and through his classes I was introduced as a young adult into the Quaker practice and life. I found especially the peace testimony and the equality testimony resonating with me at the time. Also around this time I was preparing for seminary and I was serving as a youth minister at a Methodist church because they paid more than the Quakers did and they actually had benefits at the time and I had a young family. When it came time to decide where I’d serve and where I’d want to be, I decided I should be a Quaker. It’s just who I am. So I went to Earlham School of Religion for my seminary degree, and I’ve been a convinced Friend and a birthright Friend ever since. Kind of a long winded explanation to a simple yes or no question [laughs]. Quakerism is my spiritual home and it’s where I’ve spent all my life. It feels right to me.
JP: I like that you said that. You know, you can be raised with something like, say, I was raised Roman Catholic, but once you’re old enough to think for yourself and really accept it into your heart, I think that’s when it becomes the most important. Absolutely. . . This is one of my last questions for you. Do you and Beth feel that this book might be more important now than ever in terms of today’s society from a general standpoint? I think it’s a very important message to spread to the world and to a society that doesn’t so much take the time nowadays to stop and smell the roses.
JBB: Yes, I definitely think it is. Beth and I just got back from the Festival of Faith and Writing at Calvin College that’s held every two years. And to look through the titles of books folks are publishing and to see what is interesting to the community right now, there are a lot of books on Christian thought or religious thought, but there’s still this need for what we would call “embodied faith,” which is how our faith impacts our bodies. Some folks are writing more about that. The poet Scott Cairns is. Leslie Leyland Fields has just come out with a wonderful book on food and spirituality. Folks are beginning to notice that connection more than ever—the connection between our bodies and our spirits and how we need to live an integrated, embodied faith. It involves our whole person: body, mind and soul. And perhaps Beth and I are in the good place of being on the forefront of reintroducing that to people of faith, the whole idea of, you know, “let’s connect.” We wrote the book to be very practical, not just a book of ideas, but actually to describe the different experiences with different senses, have people read through it, and then to invite others to have their own experiences and to experience God through developing their own practices.
JP: You’ve been writing for quite some time, and you co-authored this work with Beth. What was it like to co-author? Did either of you ever have differing opinions about the central message of the book? You each wrote certain alternating parts of the book and I’m sure you each had different points of view on spirituality going into the project.
JBB: I think the central premise is that our bodies carry spiritual wisdom. Beth has this wonderful line: “Helping you experience more of God.” That goes with the idea that it’s not just head knowledge; we want to experience more of God using our whole bodies. So we had a lot of agreement on that. We certainly approach our subjects much differently. Beth continues in a more Evangelical tradition. She is very open spiritually, but that’s who she is. And she’s a woman and she’s a few years younger than I am. So she has her unique view and we wanted her voice to be heard and to be distinct from mine; a man who grew up in an Evangelical tradition and is now a fairly broad minded Quaker. We didn’t want to construct a unified voice, that’s why we switched writing the various chapters. And I hope the reader doesn’t sense a jarring disconnect, I think they’re connected. But the voices are different and our experiences are different and we think it makes the book stronger that way, to have two distinct voices from two traditions sharing on this one theme.
JP: I agree. I think that style was one of the book’s major strengths. Can we expect anything soon from you writing wise? You published Awaken Your Senses about four months ago, no?
JBB: Yeah it came out officially in February and it just went back for re-printing, which is good news for us. This means people are buying the books and this message is resonating with the community. I’m working with some publishers now on various projects. It certainly won’t be within a year, but you can expect more from me. We thought maybe The Bad Quaker’s Guide to the Good Life. My agent and I think we like that title.
Interested in more from J. Brent Bill? Check out his blog at holyordinary.blogspot.com Want more? You can check the blog run by Brent’s co-author, Beth Booram at peregrinejourney.blogspot.com ]]>
Every relationship with an author began with a letter that included the boundaries. Where does the author get “last say” (message and content) and where do I get “last say” (grammar, punctuation, etc.). But one of my great satisfactions is that over the course of 35 pamphlets, I never played my “last say” card, and only a couple times did authors use theirs. When there is a wording problem, there is almost always a better way to say it than either the author or I originally imagined. And one of us always discovered it.
An editor serves multiple masters, and sometimes the demands of those different masters conflict. (Although, it’s remarkable how often they coincide.) There is of course the author―the editor serves the author’s purpose, helping to shape the message as effectively as possible for the author’s goals. Another master is the publisher―Pendle Hill has its own ministry, of which the pamphlet series is an expression. Pendle Hill’s goals for the pamphlets have always been present in the back of my mind. Third, I serve the reader. At this stage the reader has no other advocate, and my job is to keep him or her in mind at all times―what will make sense? What will be most clear, inspiring, or interesting to the reader?
The fourth master, finally, is Truth. I’m not talking about accuracy, although that is a concern, and I’m not talking about “my truth”―I believe it is possible to serve a higher truth, even when working on a manuscript I disagree with. Are quotations and references cited with integrity? Are stories involving other people told with compassion and fairness? Is the language an honest expression of what the author really believes? Is it genuine and real, and does the spirit behind the message shine through?
Copyediting this series has been a joy, occasionally a frustration, a discipline, and an opportunity for much growth and delight. But a time comes to let go, and this is that time. As I need to direct my time and energy to other places, I pass off this role with pride and affection.
In honor of these past six years, I present my own preferred list of the seven best Pendle Hill pamphlets on Friends testimonies and social witness. I edited some, but not all of them. Most of them come with discussion questions for groups.
Answering the Violence: Encounters with Perpetrators by John Lampen explores the implications for peace workers who develop relationships with perpetrators of violence (those called dictators or terrorists). What are the risks of such relationships and what part do they play in efforts to build peace in troubled situations? The author writes thoughtfully from his own work in Northern Ireland and elsewhere and draws on the experiences of others.
The Testimony of Integrity in the Religious Society of Friends, by Wilmer Cooper. Today, when Friends name our central testimonies, integrity is usually one of them. But when this pamphlet was published in 1991, that was not usually the case. Wilmer Cooper resurrected this multi-layered testimony, buried at the roots of all the others, and restored it to center stage.
Quaker Witness as Sacrament by Dan Snyder. Many Friends find themselves pulled in opposite directions, between the inward life of the spirit and a life of witness and action in the outer world. Snyder considers this tension a false duality. He explores the relationship between prayer and contemplation as forms of “inward activism” and social witness as a form of “outward prayer.”
Answering the Call to Heal the World by Patricia Schenck. In a world filled with vast needs, how do we decide where to dedicate our time and energy? Pat Schenck walks us through the life of a leading: hearing a call, testing our discernment, overcoming the obstacles to faithfulness, finding the support we need, and finally recognizing when our work is done.
Finding the Taproot of Simplicity by Fran Taber was originally a chapter in a now out-of-print anthology. I take much pride in having suggested to Pendle Hill that we ask for an updated version to publish as a pamphlet. It is one of the finest pieces I have ever seen on the spiritual basis of the testimony of simplicity.
An Art of Small Resurrections: Surviving the Texas Death Chamber by Walter Long. Working on this essay moved me deeply. The author is a lawyer assisting death row inmates in Texas. He explores how executions can be so widely accepted in a state where most citizens identify themselves as followers of Jesus. These questions lead him to reflect on the crucifixion of Christ and our understanding of atonement.
It used to be my ambition to author books for older children and young adults. It seemed to me that the best, most cutting edge and exciting literature was aimed at that market. I was curious about the people who wrote such books, and I read interviews with all my favorite authors.
I remember in particular the cranky response of one such author when he was presented with a rather clichéd question. He was asked, “Why do you think your books are so popular for adults? Is it because you write for children of all ages?”
The author (I wish I could remember who it was) shot back: “I certainly do not! I write for adults of all ages.” I say to him: “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
I still believe that the best books for this age group will also be satisfying to adults. My tastes in fiction have not changed much since I was 14. I like mystery and intrigue. I like singular, opinionated, questioning characters. I think the best stories contain a slightly disturbing element - they challenge my complacency or make me uneasy in areas where I have been certain. I have no sympathy with vampires.
A couple months ago, I decided to look at the “youth market” books we are carrying at QuakerBooks and find the ones that most speak to me as an adult, the ones I would recommend to my peers as well as to my nieces. I asked Graham and Jerimy for recommendations, and a little while later, Jerimy dumped thirty-six books on my desk and told me to take my pick.
How to cull through such a pile to pick out the best? Well, I didn’t finish reading the whole stack, so I don’t know if the following titles are the best, but they are very, very good. My method was to take home a book every night and start reading it on the train ride home. At the end of the hour-long ride, if I could bear to stop reading, I did. If I just had to keep reading, if the book was irresistible, then I continued. Many interesting and well-written books did not survive the end-of-ride test. Following are the ones I simply could not let go of.
Not the End of the World by Geraldine McCaughrean.
This is the story of the voyage of the Ark as told by one of its unrecorded characters, Noah’s young daughter, Timna.
Life on a vessel crowded with all species of hungry animals, endless rain, insufficient and moldering food would have been a tough struggle for survival.
Weeks of isolation, poor nutrition, the pleas of the drowning, and secret doubts about the Divine plan might have driven its inhabitants a bit mad.
This is a family drama with emphasis on the experiences of the women and younger passengers, telling a hard but ultimately inspirational story about
courage and caring, as well as offering a new interpretation of the story told in Genesis chapters 6-8.
Darby by Jonathon Scott Fuqua.
Young Darby lives in rural South Carolina. She has two best friends, Beth in town, who like Darby is white, and Evette, an African American girl whose tenant family lives on Darby’s family farmland.
In the 1920s, racism and racial injustice are woven throughout the life of the community.
Darby is like Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird?sometimes she takes the racism for granted, sometimes she is oblivious to it, sometimes she is shocked, and occasionally she objects.
I do not remember ever reading a work of fiction for any age in which so much of the nuance and complexity of race relations are portrayed, gently but relentlessly.
Local events get ugly and Darby eventually voices a viewpoint by writing a column for her local newspaper.
She doesn’t fully understand the risks of her public stand at a time when the Klan is gaining momentum, but the newspaper editor and her parents do,
and their ambivalence is depicted and justified, as events unwind. I think the conclusion of this book may be a little too rosy for its material, but as I was reading the story,
I kept asking myself, “How on earth can the author find a way to end this book?” I commend Fuqua for writing a story for which such a question could haunt me.
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead.
Eleven-year-old Miranda makes her way in the streets of a New York City neighborhood where troubling events take place.
This is partly a story of friendship, of learning how to be a friend, and of learning to recognize friendship when it happens unexpectedly.
But it is also a mystery. Miranda finds enigmatic notes in unlikely places asking her to write a letter to an unknown person who will travel from the future to save a life.
Madeleine L’Engle’s classic children’s book Wrinkle in Time sets the stage for time travel, as Miranda and her friends debate the possibilities of tesseract.
The Reinvention of Edison Thomas by Jacqueline Houtman.
This is the only book I selected written from the viewpoint of a male character. Why is that? I wonder. Eddy is a young boy somewhere on the autism spectrum.
He goes to school and lives a normal life in many ways, but he doesn’t quite fit in. He doesn’t “read” people well, so he often can’t distinguish between kindness and sarcasm or figure out who his real friends are.
He is fascinated by science and gadgets, but overwhelmed by the smell of tuna fish. The adults in his life are mostly sympathetic, but often don’t understand what is going on with him or why he acts the way he does.
What was most fascinating to me about this book was not the plot?although it held my interest?but seeing the world through Eddy’s eyes.
Eddy is depicted as different, but not as disabled or lesser, and he plugs along in his own way with a little help from his true friends.
I don’t like recommending books for young readers because of what they “teach,” but I do think this book might be especially appreciated by siblings or friends of children with Asberger disorder.
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
takes place in New York City in 1776. The war for American independence is underway, but young Isabel has more personal problems to worry about.
She has been sold to a Tory couple who treat her with disdain and work her hard. British forces occupy the city, and Isabel is asked to help spy for the rebels.
Whom should she support?those fighting for American independence, but not for the independence of slaves like herself, or the British, who oppose enslavement, but who impose other kinds of oppression?
Hardship and danger prompt Isabel to pursue her own freedom in her own way. (Anderson, a Quaker author and winner of multiple literary awards for her YA books, has written a sequel to Chains titled Forge.
I expect to love it when I read it.)
May these or other books bring you delight in the days ahead, Chel
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Chocolate Wars: The 150-Year Rivalry Between the World's Greatest Chocolate Makers
by Deborah Cadbury
A book we love is just out in paperback! In 2000 Cadbury's was the world's largest confectionary company.
But before long it faced a threat to its very survival, and the chocolate wars culminated in a multi-billion pound showdown pitting independence and Quaker tradition against the cut-throat tactics of a corporate leviathan.
Featuring a colorful cast of savvy entrepreneurs, brilliant eccentrics, and resourceful visionaries, Chocolate Wars is the story of a uniquely alluring product and of the evolution, for better and worse, of modern business.
Traveling requires books.
It’s not just about whiling away the long hours of a transcontinental flight or getting through the middle-of-the-night wakefulness that comes with a time shift. I’m often more selective about what I read when I’m on the road. I have never wanted to load my luggage with too many books, so I developed the habit of choosing carefully, sometimes saving books for weeks in anticipation of taking them on a trip. Even in these days of “weightless books,” travel is special time and I want to be companioned by a special book. Many titles are tangled in my memory with the trip I was taking when I read them: Anna Karenina in New Zealand, A Portrait in Grey in France, At Home on the long drive with my husband this summer to the FGC Gathering in Iowa.
But most of my travel is local. I spend two hours a day riding SEPTA’s R5 commuter line between my home in Chester County and the FGC offices in Philadelphia. There’s a lot to be said for more-or-less quiet, uninterrupted time at the beginning and end of every workday. But I could not face it on a regular basis without books.
These days, when I board the train, I am often carrying not a single book, but dozens and dozens of them, all downloaded into my bottom-of-the-line, two-pound ereader. I use a Nook. Other passengers use iPads, Kindles, Sony Readers, and other devices I don’t recognize.
Look around the train, and it’s obvious that ebooks are here to stay. Not everyone is happy about it, and there are all kinds of pros and cons. It’s true that you can mark passages and insert comments into your ebook, and you can bookmark the parts you want to come back to, but I miss the dog ears and marginalia of the “dead tree books” for which I am a second or third reader – I miss the traces of other readers who have gone before. Reading, like riding a train in which all the passengers are interacting with a device, is a more solitary activity than it used to be.
On the plus side, all of the books in my Nook are in large print – because I chose to configure them that way. And they are searchable. Where did we meet that character before? – I can find the page in seconds.
I bet you’ve guessed what I’m working up to! QuakerPress is now offering our most recent publications as ebooks, as well as in print. Over time, we expect to bring some of our older books into electronic format as well, but all three of our most recent titles, as well as an earlier one, can be downloaded for electronic readers. Some of these books are good ones for discussion groups or adult classes in meetings, and as I learned in my own book group, it’s always helpful when at least one person in the conversation has an electronic version. What was that really clever remark that Elizabeth made when Darcy snubbed her? It can be called up in half a minute!
Here are our ebooks. More to come!
NEW! Conversation with Christ: Quaker Meditations on the Gospel of John by Doug Gwyn. As someone who has always had a very mixed relationship with the Fourth Gospel (it’s beautiful, it’s deep, Jesus seems so obnoxious!), I am grateful for the way this book holds my hand through specific passages. In a format perfect for an ongoing discussion group or a meeting’s adult religious education class, Doug Gwyn takes 13 conversations out of John (“the Quaker gospel”) and explores closely what is happening in the immediate, mutually transforming encounters between Jesus and the woman of Samaria, Pilate, Simon Peter, and others. Each of these conversations is followed by “Reflections from the Quaker Tradition,” a section exploring the conversation’s themes from the perspective of Quaker history and witness. Finally, there is a guided meditation inviting us into our own “Conversation.”
NEW! A Lively Faith: Reflections on Iowa Yearly Meeting of Friends (Conservative) by Callie Marsh is a short, personal portrait of rural Friends from one of the three Conservative yearly meetings. Who are they? How are they connected to the Wilburite movement? In what ways are they similar to other Friends? In what ways are they unique? How are they addressing present-day challenges, such as same-gender marriage? This is interesting train reading.
NEW! Black Fire: African American Quakers on Spirituality and Human Rights is a collection that breaks easily into short chunks that work well for commuters and discussion groups alike. For the morning ride, I prefer something meditative, such as the spiritual essays of Jean Toomer or the poems of Howard Thurman. On the ride home, I want something lively to counteract the day’s fatigue: Bayard Rustin’s account of his nonviolent response to being removed by police from a bus in Tennessee or selections from Mahala Ashley Dickerson’s “Negro Lawyer in the South.” This anthology speaks to both ends of the day.
Where Should I Stand? A Field Guide for Monthly Meeting Clerks is a wise, practical handbook that we published three years ago. It was our first experiment with epublishing, and helped us decide that we should do more of it. Elizabeth Boardman discusses the many questions she asked herself in her first term as a meeting clerk, from how she should handle her relationships with visitors, committees, and “disappointed Friends” to “am I a Mary or a Martha?” If you are a clerk, think you may be one someday, or if there is a clerk in your life, this book is a helpful, Friendly companion.
NEW! Available not as an ebook, but as a pdf download, is the new creation from FGC’s Youth Ministries Program, Build It! A Toolkit for Nurturing Intergenerational Spiritual Community. This collection of resources was prepared to assist meetings and other Friends groups in nurturing community and connectedness between young and old. About half of the book is devoted to “tools” ― activities for deepening relationship, games for gathering, for learning about one another, and for a variety of other purposes. The chapters that comprise the other half of the book share the insights developed by committee and staff in their own experiences building communities of all generations. See more about it and get some sneak peeks over at www.fgcquaker.org/toolkit.
Also great for discussion groups – even if we only have them in paper:
The Wisdom to Know the Difference: When to Make a Change―and When to Let Go, by Eileen Flanagan. The author of this book is one of my favorite Quaker writers. She delves into her own experience, listens to the experience of others, and writes authentically from what she has discovered. This book grapples with the mystery at the middle of the well-known Serenity Prayer, which asks God for the serenity to accept what cannot be changed, the courage to change what can be changed, and the wisdom to know the difference. How does one know the difference? There are no easy answers in this book, no self-help rubrics or step-by-step solutions. But there is insight about living into the dilemma and discerning the path forward. The book contains stories from people of many faiths and all walks of life, those who have learned to accept with serenity and those who have braved the fear of change.
The Evolution of Faith: How God is Creating a Better Christianity by Philip Gulley. Early in this book, the author describes carefully holding a stunned hummingbird in his open hand, waiting for it to recover enough to fly away. He writes
I've often thought revelations and insights about God ought to be handled much the same way, loosely and softly so as not to smother or harm them. Unfortunately, this is usually the opposite of how divine truths are held. Our tendency is to grab them tightly, seizing them, squeezing out their vibrancy and vitality until life is gone from them.
Philip Gulley, a Quaker pastor, explores his religion from a relaxed grasp. What is God like? Who was Jesus, really, and were there others like him? What aspects of religion are helpful to us and what aspects get in the way of a healthy spirituality? What about suffering? Death? Nothing is too sacred to hold in open hands and consider anew, based on experience and thought rather than on codified teachings. The twelve chapters each come with three discussion questions, any one of which could keep my meeting engaged for a morning.
May you dwell in the Light,
Chel
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